“As a way to help us keep the commandments of God, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have what we call a gospel culture. It is a distinctive way of life, a set of values and expectations and practices common to all members. This gospel culture comes from the plan of salvation, the commandments of God, and the teachings of the living prophets. It guides us in the way we raise our families and live our individual lives.” – Dallin H. Oaks, 21 November 2010

We struggle sometimes to identify just what the “gospel culture” is – Is it Wasatch Front-style funeral potatoes, basketball games, and organ accompaniment to a standard set of hymns? Most of us would say no to that in theory, even as written policies and human inertia tend to enforce it in practice. Many of us want to believe we are like the African congregations Elder Oaks addressed in the linked talk: “The strong African family culture is superior to that of many Western countries, where family values are disintegrating,” on the conservative end of the question; and “When it comes to giving up false traditions and cultures, we praise our younger people for their flexibility and progress” on the progressive end.

Gospel culture, however nebulous it is to pin down, belongs to everyone who has or does or will embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is not the exclusive property of the Wasatch Front, or of the United States, or of the West more broadly. It belongs to and is sustained by Latter-day Saints in Eastern civilizations, among the Saints everywhere on the African continent, and “on the isles of the sea.”

It has no racial component, no nationalistic component, except, perhaps, in the claim that we – all of us who are members of the Church – are of the House of Israel and, commonly, of the tribe of Ephraim. Even so, that claim is in no way exclusive: Anyone who accepts the gospel is of the House of Israel, and every tribal designation within that House carries with it an obligation, a responsibility – not an exclusive right to privilege or status or blessing.

In fact, nothing about the gospel is exclusive. It is free to all who will accept it. It must be preached “to every nation, kindred, tongue and people,” without exception. This responsibility, Joseph Smith taught, would be a joy, not a burden, to anyone living in the Spirit: “A man filled with the love of God,” Joseph told the Twelve in October 1840 as they left Nauvoo for international missions, “is not content with blessing his family alone, but ranges through the world, anxious to bless the whole human family.”

Another clip from Elder Oaks’ talk: “How grateful we are for the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. It tells us who we are. When we understand our relationship to God, we also understand our relationship to one another.” We are all brothers and sisters in the flesh, as well as brothers and sisters through our standing as children of God. That teaching is so uniform, so clear, that I cannot see how anyone can deny it and still claim to be a Latter-day Saint.

Yet some do. Some are. Some deny the universality of the gospel, reserving it solely to themselves, and those who are very like themselves. Some substitute nationalistic claims, or claims to superior and separate culture. Some can look at innocent, lovely children – children of the same Father, children of the same eternal destiny – and dismiss them as worthless, as “other people’s babies.”

There are no “other people’s babies.” The children of all mankind – regardless of origin, or national border, or color, or language, or need – are our babies, with bodies created by God, with spirits who come from God, with eternal destinies laid out by God. Who are you — anybody — to count them as worthless, or to drive them away?

Nations have the right to set policies for themselves with regard to who and when and how and how many may cross their borders. This is not about that. This is about claims of racial and [worldly] cultural supremacy. This is about denying the humanity and dignity of people who don’t share assumptions of Wonderbread superiority. This is about the so-called Latter-day Saints who, this week, condemned a friend of mine for being a “race traitor” and “muddying the waters” and venomously ordered her to “go back to Korea.” This is for supposed Latter-day Saints who issue “white baby challenges” and openly advocate for white nationalism.

This is about gospel culture.

Elder Oaks again:

All men and women on this earth are the offspring of God, spirit brothers and sisters, whatever their color or citizenship. No wonder God’s Only Begotten Son commanded us to love one another. What a different world it would be if brotherly and sisterly love and unselfish assistance could cross over all boundaries of tribe, nation, creed, and color. Such love would not erase all differences of opinion and action, but it would guide each of us to focus our efforts on cooperative actions with our neighbors rather than on hatred or oppression of them.

I affirm the great truth that our Heavenly Father loves all His children.